A Tree of Lies: Approaches to Mendacity in Part One of the Conde Lucanor (Exemplo 26 and Other Tales).

This article first considers precedents and contexts for understanding tale 26 in Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor , "De lo que contesçió al árvol de la mentira," including one that has gone unnoticed by critics: the figure of a tree of lies in John of Capua's thirteenth-century Directorium humanae vitae. It then shows how Patronio's general view of mendacity in Part One of the collection, as exemplified by tale 26, can be compared to the account of and prohibition against lying found in works by Augustine that informed Thomas Aquinas's treatment of mendacity in the Summa Theologica. I go on to demonstrate how a number of other tales in the Conde Lucanor advocate an alternative, more permissible approach to telling untruths that was to some extent anticipated in writings of the early Church, and that corresponds with politicized, utilitarian views emerging later in the Middle Ages, as seen in John of Salisbury's Policratus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]